Grant's "I'll Never Do" list

This list was compiled this morning by the author. Grant would like to share it. Spelling has not been edited.
1. I'll never take a tub.
2. I'll never have a dinosaur party.
3. I'll never say bad words.
4. I'll never remember mokingbirds.
5. I'll never go ice cateing.
6. I'll never pudt a snowball on my ie.
7. I'll never touch the fire.
8. I'll never boge. (budge.)
9. I'll never watch Wonder Pets.
10. I'll never spell enething with a j, not inclooding Jack.
11. I'll never look for bugs not inclooding spiders.
12. I'll never wash my hands with cold water.
13. I'll never mete an aligaitor.
14. I'll never travel too antartica.
15. I'll never eat chees.
16. I'll never hide in or by a spiderweb.
17. I'll never make dertey food.
18. I'll never mess up fernicher.

There you have it. At least he'll never budge!

TGIF, and S, and S

During the week, we tease that we "catch a glimpse" of Nate as he passes in and out of night float. Typically, he'll get home around 8:30 or 9:00 am and will leave again at 4:15 to make it into work by 5. Most of this time is taken up by the unfortunate human necessity of sleep, although he functions on an impressively small quantity. (If I were to get by on what he gets by on, I would not be a very nice person.)

However, on Fridays, the kids know that dad will crash until noon, and then we're rockin' and rollin.' We've been trying to take advantage of our summer weekends of living on the East Coast... so many beautiful places, big cities, and historical sites to explore! Good thing we've got four more years here; I don't know how we'd pack it all in otherwise.

One weekend, we went camping on the Delaware River with our great friends the Michauds, the camping experts. While I didn't bring the camera on the river itself, here are a few pics.

Nate and Grant clearly happy to be at our campsite, all set up

a surprisingly good night's sleep in the tent, except for me of course..terrified of bears all night!

Jack the budding fisherman, but alas, didn't catch any. At least he's got a good supply of chocolate chip cookies on his face to stave off hunger during those long, biteless hours

Dingman's Falls: a beautiful, cool waterfall in what Pennsylvanians think are mountains


This past weekend, we journeyed the 5 hours up to Palmyra to pay a visit to the Church history sites. Our stake's YM/YW was attending the Hill Cumorah Pageant as part of youth conference, so we joined them for that. It was beautiful, albeit hot and humid, and the boys had a great time.

The Palmyra Temple (Jack was experiencing a temporary meltdown and refused to look at the camera)

Grant with Laura Ebeling, a YW in our ward who happens to be one of his favorite babysitters. We think she makes a pretty good Princess Leia.

At the pageant: a very late night, especially for Grant, who thrives on going to bed promptly at 8:30. Way to be tough, bud.

I love my boys. They are such good friends!


Outside the Sacred Grove. An amazing place! Grant said it made him feel happy and sleepy.

Ummm...Not exactly

So, I am on call at the hospital...surprise, surprise...I check the blog during some downtime and "Whoa, that's not what I said" pops to my mind. Therefore, before I become a punching bag for all things having to do with men and pregnancy...let me correct the public record.

First: Our conversation needs to be put in context. We were finishing the annual Havertown 4th of July bike parade and I looked over at my adorable wife. I remembered 6 years ago when we were staying in a sweet New York City pad and Jenny was expecting Grant. I recalled that Jenny's first sojourn in maternity clothes during that pregnancy was for a little party that we threw for some of our friends. It was a really cute pink shirt with a white collar and some well ironed white capri's. She didn't really "need" to wear it, because she hadn't really "popped" (I think that's the correct term), but she was a little thicker and it was really pretty. I then compared that picture, to what I was currently looking at...My adorable wife in some hot neon green shirt she made at Young Women's Camp and black cut-off sweats. I was struck by the comparison, and decided to compliment Jenny on her beautiful self (something I now wish I hadn't done). I said, "You know, you are a lot skinnier during this pregnancy than you were with Grant 6 years ago," because she is. Her arms, neck, legs, face, etc are skinnier. Then I said, "you really are a lot skinnier and your belly is a littlemore round then it was. You look really good pregnant." Of course, I realized by the steam coming from her ears that she didn't catch the drift of my compliment and I further clarified, "No, what I'm trying to say is you are skinnier than you were so your belly is more obvious because it's not hidden by as much weight gain." (I don't think she heard this part, or if she did it probably sounded like the adults in Charlie Brown's world...Blah blah blah).

Second: Jenny is super self conscious about her supposed varicose veins. I get questions all the time about "is this bigger" or "is this a varicose vein", to which my answer is always, "no" and "I think that's a mosquito bite, babe." With regard to my attempt at humor regarding her "new" varicose vein that she thinks I was pointing out...well, I'll admit that it was probably poor timing. What I should have said was something like this, "You're awesome, I'm not. You're pretty, I'm ugly. You're smart, I'm dumb. You're nice, I'm Mean. You're right, I'm wrong..." you get the drift.

Third: Jenny does have some sweet new gray hairs. I think their cute, and I'm glad that Grant picked up on them without my prompting.

So there you have it. The truth, and my side of the story.

gray matter and a dose of humility

Today, I'm reading Magic Tree House with Grant, who I happen to notice is looking at my head quite intently. When I ask him what he's doing, he replies,

"Oh, I'm just counting gray hairs on your head."

I race to the mirror.

"Where?"

"Well , just all over. Although, I guess it could be brain matter seeping out. Our brains are gray, you know."

I guess I've just got to hope for the latter. Maybe I'm so intelligent that my brain just can't be contained in my head.

Oh, and then there's Nate. Granted, he's lost his tact filter due to prolonged sleep deprivation, but this does mean he can't sugarcoat anything. He says what he means, if you catch my drift.

Yesterday:

"Hey babe, you're looking a lot thinner than you have with other pregnancies. Your stomach's bigger, though."

"Thanks. (?)

"But you do have some varicose veins."

Whoa. Am I letting myself go here? Leave it to my family to keep me humble, in pants, and in search of a good colorist...